Sosland Journal 27

Differentiating the Benefits and

Hindrances of Background Music in
Writing
Jesse George

Abstract
A few studies have been conducted to explore the rela-
tionship between background music and learning. Although this
may allow for better insight into what environments should be
created to enhance learning processes, “learning” is a very ambig-
uous term, a conducive learning environment may look different
according to the particular activity. For example, the environment
setup and processes an instructor might use to teach an individ-
ual how to rock climb or to read a book surely would look a lot
different. This research project unveils insight into the dynamic of
background music and the writing process. Does background mu-
sic increase a student’s ability to focus while writing? How do the
genre, tempo, the person of interest, and other variables alter the
effects of background music while writing? Overall, is background
music a benefit or a hindrance to the writing process? To address
these questions, a survey was conducted to gauge the current
feelings and attitudes of college students’ opinions on writing with
background music. The sample consisted of 50 students from 17
different universities and colleges across the Midwest. This paper
uses the survey to confirm and deny some of the current theories
28 Sosland Journal

and claims about the effects of background music on the writing

process. Beyond the scope of this paper, the results of this study
may provide further explanation on how to enhance writing envi-
ronments in the classroom.

Discussion
In the past 30 years, technology has drastically changed the
lives of millions of Americans and many more around the world.
From the ability to reach into your pocket to access a plethora of
information in search engines, to interfaces allowing video con-
ferencing from different hemispheres of the world, things have
certainly evolved. Advancements in technology have altered some
of the most integral, ubiquitous practices in life, such as looking
for an answer to a question or communicating with a colleague
or friend. Because of how common technology has become in
American culture, not to mention how quickly it is assimilated into
everyday life, it is imperative to understand the implications asso-
ciated with it. When it comes to music, specifically, advancements
in technology have broadened everyone’s capabilities to create,
listen, and share. It is not uncommon to find someone listening to
music in the background on their commute to work, or for there to
be different types of background music playing in each store you
walk into at a mall. If one cannot say in general that Americans’
exposure to background music has significantly increased in recent
history, then at the very least, one could say that Americans’ access
to background music has undoubtedly increased. Moreover, the
research surrounding the effects of background music is still in its
infancy. Not many definitive conclusions have been reached sur-
rounding the topic, let alone its effects on the writing process.
In a 2005 study, Danhauer and Kemper found that music
that was carefully selected can lower stress, enhance feelings of
relaxation and comfort, and can act as a distractor to pain. Further-
 Sosland Journal 29

more, the study linked the heightened state with physical changes
in the body such as reduced cortisol levels, lowered amounts of
stress administered to the heart, and an increase to the efficacy of
the neural and immune systems. A similar study found that clas-
sical music and Nasyid, a traditional Malaysian music composed
of a cappella and instrumentals, were effective in creating a more
relaxed environment (Kadir et al.). It seems as if the general public
took studies such as these to confirm the “feel-good” phenomena
one can experience when listening to music. Although the results
in this section of the review of literature were promising, it is im-
portant to note that simply because background music can posi-
tively change an individual’s feelings does not necessarily mean it
will positively affect an individual’s performance in writing, or any
given activity for that matter.
When considering the effects of background music on the
writing process, a process heavily involved with reading, writing,
recalling, and rewriting, the tempo of music seems to be a variable
of concern. Juliane Kämpfe et al. found that there is a direct cor-
relation between the tempo of music played and the tempo of the
behavior exhibited regardless of the activity performed. Kallinen,
and later on by Day et al., further confirmed the previous research
highlighting slow paced music can decrease the speed and effi-
ciency of reading. However, it seems too early to resolve that slow
paced music is only associated with negative implications. In a
study performed by Oakes and North, they found that slow tempo
music proved the more beneficial condition in advertisement con-
tent recall than fast tempo music. Despite the juxtaposing results
of the effects of the tempo of music on a variety of activities, it is
important to note that there was little difference in the results of
advertisement content recall when comparing the slow tempo
music condition with the no music condition.
In addition to tempo, the genre of music seems to have an
30 Sosland Journal

influence on the effects of background music in writing. Mullikin

and Henk showed that while reading, between classical music, rock
music, and no music, classical music proved better results than
the rock music and no music conditions. Freeburne and Fleischer
concluded that while listening to jazz music in the background
participants exhibited faster reading speeds than listening to clas-
sical music. There are even differences in the results of background
music within the same genre. Music with lyrics proved much more
distracting to learners than instrumental music (Perham and Cur-
rie).
The effects of background music in writing not only vary
based on song selection, but the individual in question can be an
important determination as well. In a study exploring the effects
of background music on word processed writing, S.E. Ransdell and
L. Gilroy found that participants identified as having a high writ-
ing span or having some kind of musical training wrote essays of
greater quality and with longer sentences then those identified
with a low writing span and no musical training. Furthermore,
the study found that the higher quality writers were more likely to
pause at clause boundaries than at random points in a sentence.
Depending on a writer’s understanding and proficiency within a
language, those who have a greater understanding may experi-
ence a relative increase in writing speed without jeopardizing the
quality of writing (Cho). During the actual process of writing, an
individual’s working memory handles the brunt of the information
processing in their brain (Lehmann and Seufert). Furthermore, the
study notes that individuals with lower working memories saw
a reduction in the quality of their writing while under the back-
ground music condition.
As the discussion of the effects of background music con-
tinues to grow, it is becoming increasingly apparent there is much
more than simply a “feel-good” phenomena occurring. During
 Sosland Journal 31

the writing process, whether the effects of background music are

a benefit or hindrance seem at the very least dependent on the
tempo and genre of the song selected. In addition to the variability
of the song, the person of interest’s writing span, musical train-
ing, language proficiency, and working memory all seem to play a
significant role in the effects of background music on the writing
process.

Methods
This study consisted of a comprehensive survey created
through Google Forms and was sent out to participants through a
web link. The theme and background color of the survey were kept
at their default settings, purple, to minimize outside suggestions.
The survey consisted of 20 questions: one check box question,
nine short response questions, and 10 multiple choice questions.
The question and answer selections were carefully worded to be
concise and consistent. For example, for questions concerned
with frequency, the answer choices remained consistent with the
selections being never, rarely, occasionally, frequently, and almost
always. All the questions were worded such that the least amount
of words was used while attempting to retain the meaning of the
question. If further explanation seemed appropriate, additional
information was provided in parentheses.
50 participants were chosen at random using a program
in Microsoft Office’s Excel from a larger tested sample size of 67
students. All the results of the survey were collected from the
participants over a 24-hour time period. The randomly selected
participants represent 17 different universities across the Midwest
coming from Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, and Kansas. However, nearly
half of the participants are from the Missouri University of Science
and Technology: 24 of the 50 participants. Of the 50 participants,
35 of them are male and the other 15 are female. The participants
32 Sosland Journal

are all between the ages of 19 and 24, and either still working
towards a degree or just recently graduated. Of the 50, 23 of the
participants are studying a discipline within engineering, nine are
studying some form of business, nine are studying within health-
care majors, six are studying within life sciences, and three partici-
pants were still undecided as to their major.
The ethical considerations of this study were of utmost
importance to protect the identity and privacy of each of the
surveyed participants. A message was sent out to 250+ different
students with a brief description of the survey and how the data
was going to be used. None of the data collected, such as per-
sonal information for later communication, was used outside the
confines of the study. Moreover, the communication and results
shared between each of the participants and the researcher were
all kept separate. Due to the extraordinary circumstances created
by the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, each participant took the surveys
on a device connected to the internet from remote locations, and
all the communication was directed through messaging applica-
tions and email to respect social distancing practices.

Results
After a thorough analysis of the survey results, writing in
an environment in which background music was playing seems to
be the popular option among college students. Of the 50 partici-
pants, 31 students, or 62%, at least occasionally play background
music while writing in any form. Furthermore, of the 31 students
that listen to background music while writing, 12 of them “almost
always” listen to background music. For further analysis, reference
figure 1 below.
 Sosland Journal 33

Figure 1.

Although the multiple-choice question in figure 2 isn’t

referencing just writing when asking why participants choose to
have background music playing while completing a task, it was
interesting to see the reasoning behind each decision. Further-
more, despite a majority of the participants doing it to improve
their mood, there doesn’t seem to be any significant trend behind
why students listen to background music while doing something.
If the participants could not categorize themselves into one of the
provided answer selections, then a short response box was given
in the next question for further explanation. In figure 2, the “To get
me into a rhythm, work wise” answer is reflective of the only partic-
ipant who chose to explain themselves further.

Figure 2.

When the participants were asked what type of back-

ground music they listened to while writing, the results varied
quite widely. A slim majority, 26 participants, preferred music
without any lyrics in classical music (7 participants), instrumentals
(7 participants), and lo-fi hip hop (12 participants). As illustrated in
figure 3, the other 24 students listened to an assortment of genres,
and of those 24 participants, half of them preferred to listen to hip
hop/rap music.

Figure 3.

When participants were asked at what point they listen

to background music during the writing process, interestingly
enough there seems to be a trend toward reducing the amount
of background music participants listened to the further they got
into the writing process. Surprisingly, as illustrated in figure 4, only
four of the 50 participants stated they don’t listen to background
music at any point during the writing process.

Figure 4.

To gauge how well versed the sample was musically, a

question was asked to see if the participants had musical training
 Sosland Journal 35

of any kind. Of the 60% of participants that answered yes, further

explanation was required. Most of the participants that answered
yes seemed to have a significant amount of musical training, but
three of the explanations seemed questionable. One of the ques-
tionable explanations stated, “Does playing the spoons count?”
and the other two did not shy too far away in terms of validity.
After accounting for this error, the participants that have received
musical training make up a slightly smaller majority than displayed
in figure 5.

Figure 5.

The very last question of the survey asked if the participant

had to write an essay at that very moment, would they prefer to
do it with background music or in silence? Looking at the results
of figure 6, two out of every three college students would prefer to
write an essay with background music.

Figure 6.
36 Sosland Journal

Conclusions
The inspiration behind this study originated from the com-
mon, positive feelings one might experience while listening to the
music of their choice. A majority of students’ reasoning as to why
they listen to background music was to improve their mood. When
it comes to writing, college students’ thoughts and opinions fell in
line with Danhauer’s and Kemper’s study suggesting people use
background music to feel better while stimulated by an activity
such as writing. Furthermore, with two out of every three students
choosing to write an essay with background music instead of in
silence, the survey suggests that listening to background music
while writing is a fairly common practice. This is just more reason
to differentiate the effects of background music in writing from
the simplistic mood-arousal effect (Thompson, Schellenberg, and
Husain).
From college students to published authors, it seems like
the decision to listen to background music isn’t exclusive to writ-
ers with less experience. Award-winning American author, writing
coach, and public speaker Marylee MacDonald mentions in her
article “Music vs. Silence: Does Listening to Music Get in the Way
of Writing?” that “Hamam: The Turkish Bath, helped me recapture
the sense of strangeness and dislocation… [to] write the stories
in my prize winning chapbook, The Rug Bazaar” (MacDonald).
After listening to the soundtrack, the music can be described as
fast paced. Furthermore, although due to the limited capabilities
to accurately track the tempo of music listened to by the partici-
pants in the survey, the respective results from the Kämpfe et al.
and Kallinen studies in conjunction with MacDonald’s professional
experience seem to indicate a slightly beneficial effect to writing
time when listening to fast tempo music. However, more research
is needed to further identify how the tempo of music facilitates its
effects on the writing process.
 Sosland Journal 37

The survey indicated that college students prefer to use

background music in the beginning of the writing process, such
as the brainstorming and pre-writing phases. However, the survey
also displayed that interest in using background music continually
dwindled moving further and further into the writing process. That
finding is consistent with the findings of Ransdell and Gilroy, which
stated that music should disrupt writing because it is interfering
with two essential subprocesses to rewriting: reading text and the
translation of ideas into text. Furthermore, Torrance and Galbraith
conclude that even the best of writers constantly revise their
work. Students and professional writers alike change, revise, and
edit their work, activities heavily dependent on reading text and
translation of ideas into text. Thus, it’s more than likely background
music tends to be more helpful in the beginnings of the writing
process when there is less to reread and revise.
Although studies such as Mullikin and Henk, and Freeburne
and Fleischer, suggest some genres of music to be more helpful
than others, the findings in this survey don’t suggest any preferred
music genre over another. Moreover, about half of the participants
listened to music with lyrics and the other half did not. If under the
assumption each participant only listens to the music they person-
ally think is beneficial during their writing process, then the near
50-50 split should challenge Perham’s and Currie’s finding of how
music without lyrics is more beneficial.
Interestingly enough, those that answered “no” to having
musical training in the study also represented a majority of the
population that answered “never” and “rarely” when questioned
how frequently they listened to background music while writ-
ing. In addition to the findings in Ransdell and Gilroy’s study, the
survey suggests that an individual’s exposure to music can be an
important determination in whether listening to background mu-
sic can be a benefit or hindrance. Because of the limitations of the
38 Sosland Journal

data collection in this study, there is not enough information to

make evidence-based assertions as to an individual writing span,
language proficiency, and working memory on the effectiveness of
background music. Furthermore, studies in the future should take
into consideration the tempo and genre of music, musical train-
ing, language proficiency, writing span, writing task, and working
memory to further centralize the conversation around the effects
of background music on the writing process.

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Questions to Consider:
Context
1. Based on the findings presented in George’s essay, has
your perception of the role of music in learning and
writing shifted?

Style
1. George’s essay is presented in a scientific research essay
format. What are the benefits of that format? How do
structure and form in writing affect the way content is
percieved by the reader?